The present invention relates to a fastener device, in particular for a door or a gate, more particularly a double door, including a lock comprising: a frame with a carrier plate and an edge plate, the frame being arranged to be mounted with said edge plate against an upright; at least one bolt slidably mounted on the frame between a retracted and a projecting position and extending in its projecting position with a distal extremity over a predetermined distance out of the edge plate such as to extend through and project with a portion out of said upright when the lock is mounted against this upright; and an actuation mechanism arranged to move said bolt from its retracted to its projecting position and vice versa and comprising an operating member acting on an abutment element on the bolt, which abutment element is separated by a predetermined length of the bolt from said distal extremity thereof.
The lock described in EP-A-0 606 196 comprises a half-turn bolt operated by means of the handles and a dead bolt operated by means of a key operated cylinder. In this known lock, the distance over which both bolts project out of the edge plate is adjustable in order to allow mounting of the lock against uprights of different diameters.
For the half-turn bolt, this is achieved by making a series of cuts in the bolt which co-operate with a sprocket on the handle shaft so that the half-turn bolt can be retracted by means of the handles. The series of cuts in the bolt extends over a longer distance on the half-turn bolt than the distance between the retracted and the projecting position of this bolt so that the half-turn bolt can be mounted in different positions with respect to the sprocket in the lock. Since these different positions correspond with different distances over which the half-turn bolt projects out of the lock, the distance over which the half-turn bolt projects out of the lock can be adjusted by opening the lock and by mounting the half-turn bolt in the required position with respect to the sprocket on the handle shaft.
In order to make the dead bolt adjustable, three notches are provided in the lower side thereof, instead of the usual one notch, to co-operate with the driving bit of the key operated cylinder. On the upper side of the dead bolt, six cuts are provided, namely two cuts for each notch in the lower side. These cuts are arranged to co-operate with a locking member. One notch of each pair co-operates more particularly with the locking member in the projecting position of the dead bolt to lock the dead bolt in its projecting position and the second notch of each pair co-operates with the locking member in the retracted position of the dead bolt to lock the dead bolt in its retracted position. In order to adjust the distance over which the dead bolt projects in its projecting position out of the lock, the lock can be opened and the dead bolt can be mounted in three different positions in the lock, namely in those positions wherein the bit of the cylinder co-operates with the first, the second or the third notch in the lower side of the dead bolt.
A drawback of the lock disclosed in EP-A-0 606 196 is that for adjusting the distance over which the half-turn bolt or the dead bolt projects out of the lock, the lock has to be opened and the bolt has to be mounted in the required position in the lock. A further drawback is that there are only a limited number of discrete positions wherein the bolt can be mounted in the lock, for the dead bolt for example only three.
An object of the present invention is therefore to propose a new lock showing a bolt, in particular a latch and/or a dead bolt, which projects out of the lock over a distance which is adjustable without having to open the lock and mount the bolt in the required position.
To this end, the fastener device according to the present invention is characterised in that said bolt comprises a first part showing said distal extremity and a second part provided with said abutment element and means operable from said projecting portion of the bolt to move the first and second parts axially with respect to one another and to fix them to one another in different axial positions to adjust said predetermined length and thereby said predetermined distance over which the bolt projects out of the edge plate.
An essential difference with the prior art lock described hereabove is that the bolt comprises two parts which can be moved axially with respect to one another and fixed in different positions to one another. Since the distal extremity of the bolt is situated on the first bolt part and the abutment element onto which the actuating mechanism acts on the second bolt part, another mutual position of the two bolt parts corresponds to another distance over which the bolt projects out of the edge plate of the lock. Due to the fact that the means for moving and mutually fixing these two parts are operable from the portion of the bolt which projects out of the upright against which the lock is mounted, it is no longer necessary to disassemble the lock to adjust the distance over which the bolt projects out of the lock. Moreover, when the door onto which the lock is mounted is locked, the projecting portion of the bolt is not accessible so that the security of the lock is still guaranteed.
In a first particular embodiment of the fastener device according to the invention, said means for moving and fixing the first and second parts of the bolt in different axial positions to one another comprise a screw thread on said first bolt part and a corresponding screw thread on said second bolt part showing a screw axis directed according to a longitudinal axis of the bolt, the first and the second bolt parts being screwable onto one another over different overlapping distances to adjust said predetermined length of the bolt.
In this embodiment, the first bolt part can be screwed over the desired distance on the second bolt part. This embodiment is applicable to both a latch bolt or a dead bolt but especially to a dead bolt in view of the fact that it enables to maintain the notch or notches in the second bolt part to actuate the bolt in the usual way by means of the driving bit of the key operated cylinder.
Preferably, one of said screw threads is an inner and another of said screw threads an outer screw thread provided on a projecting portion of the part onto which this outer screw thread is provided, and an axial hole is provided through the distal extremity of the bolt until at least into said projecting portion, the hole being provided at least in said projecting portion with an internal screw thread and the lock comprises a set screw arranged to be screwed in said hole to lock said projecting portion in said inner screw thread by laterally expanding it therein. In this way, the set screw is inaccessible when the door is locked so that the first bolt part cannot be rotated with respect to the second bolt part when the door is locked thus providing an increased security.
In a second particular embodiment of the fastener device according to the invention, said second bolt part comprises a slide element which is slidably mounted in said first bolt part and which is provided with said abutment element, said means for moving and fixing the first and second bolt parts in different positions to one another comprising a threaded shank extending axially within the first bolt part and engaging the slide element and the first bolt part, which threaded shank is accessible through an axial hole provided in said distal extremity to rotate it either clockwise or anti-clockwise to slide said slide element axially in the first bolt part.
In this embodiment, the position of the abutment element with respect to the first bolt part and thus the distance over which the bolt projects out of the lock can easily be adjusted by rotating the threaded shank through the axial hole in the bolt, for example by means of a hexagonal key or a screw driver. This embodiment can easily be applied to the latch bolt but also to the dead bolt.
Preferably, said threaded shank is mounted freely rotatable in one predetermined position in the first bolt part and is screwed in an axial threaded hole in said slide element. In this way, a translation movement of the slide element in the axial direction of the bolt can easily be obtained by a rotation of the threaded shank.
In a further particular embodiment, the fastener device comprises at least one handle rotatably mounted on a handle shaft and a follower mounted in this shaft and the aforementioned operating member comprises a ring comprising a cylindrical external profile delimited by two practically parallel sides and a stub arranged radially on the outside periphery of this cylindrical profile to act on the abutment element on the latch bolt, the said ring being attached via one of the aforementioned sides to the follower (18) forming a hub so as to form an annular groove in which a return means for said handle is housed. The aforementioned operating member thus operates the bolt reliably and effectively. Furthermore, the construction of the operating member and the abutment element proves simple and inexpensive. The abutment element may for example be formed by a projecting element attached to the lateral surface of the latch bolt. Furthermore, the space required by the means for returning the handle is eliminated, because it is housed in the operating member thereof. What is more, this arrangement gives effective protection to the return means against external disturbances.